WWUTT 237 The Fullness of the Blessing of Christ?

The Apostle Paul planned on stopping in Jerusalem, and then he planned to go to Rome. And that's what happened, but it didn't go exactly the way that Paul had planned. It went the way that God had planned so that His gospel would be proclaimed, when we understand the text.

One Year of WWUTT and a Marriage Anniversary

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, celebrating one full year as an online Bible teaching podcast. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. Yes, one year on the air as of tomorrow. We did our first broadcast August 3rd of 2015, and I'm totally saying this wrong. It should be on the internet, not on the air, and podcast instead of broadcast.

But I even said in that very first episode I was going to be using the term broadcasting more than podcast, because that's the word that I'm used to. It's the old radio guy in me reverting to my radio terms.

But I also love the Biblical connotation of the word broadcasting. You just have to go back to that first episode to hear what I'm talking about. Speaking of anniversaries, my wife and I celebrated ours yesterday, and she is the one who opens and closes each one of these episodes.

Becky, thank you so much for what you contribute to this program. I have loved being married to you, and I'm looking forward to many more years together. Not just as husband and wife, not just as parents, but even in the ministry that we do together.

Paul’s Travel Plans and the Collection for Jerusalem

Romans chapter 15 verses 22 through 33, we are looking at again today. We'll actually finish this section today, but I'm actually going to come back to something else in chapter 15 again tomorrow. Let's begin in verse 22.

This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to you, my brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Now there are actually some really beautiful things going on here at the end of this chapter and we could spend a good length of time talking about them, but I'm going to give you the short version.

So let's go back to about where we left off yesterday, verse 27. For they were pleased to do it, the Gentiles, helping out those who are in Jerusalem, they are pleased to help them, and indeed they owe it to them.

And for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So Paul is planning on going to Jerusalem to deliver the money that has been given to him for what he has collected to help the poor there in Jerusalem.

And then after that, he is planning on going to Rome. Well, that did work out for him, but not quite the way that he planned it, not the way he planned it, that that progress of the journey did happen that way, just not the way that Paul would have expected it to go.

Paul’s Arrest in Jerusalem and His Defense Before the Crowd

In Acts chapter 21, we read about Paul visiting Jerusalem, just as he says to the Roman Christians here that he is going to do. That's what he does. If you'll remember, Paul wrote this letter in about 57 AD.

So it was shortly after he wrote the letter, he went to Jerusalem and we read about it in Acts chapter 21. Paul visits with James, who was the head of the Jerusalem church. And James tells him about how there are many people in Jerusalem who are warning others that Paul speaks against the law.

He tells people not to obey the law. Don't circumcise your children and do all these other things that the law tells you to do. And so James says, here's what you need to do. And there are four individuals there who are under a vow.

And James said, take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance to the law.

But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.

And that was earlier in the letter where we read about that Jerusalem council or earlier in Acts rather. Then Paul took the men and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.

But before that seven days was up, there were some Jews who came into the temple and stirred the whole crowd against Paul. And there was a Roman tribune that heard all of the commotion going on. And there were so many different false accusations that were being hurled about Paul and it was just a big racket that the tribune could not make out what was true and what was false.

So he arrested Paul and bound him with chains, inquired who he was and what he had done. And when the crowd got even more crazy, the guards actually picked him up and carried him out for the mob of the people followed crying out away with him.

And so as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said very respectfully to the tribune, may I say something to you? And the tribune said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4 ,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?

So you can hear the kind of lies that were being told about Paul. And Paul replied, I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul standing on the steps motion with his hand to the people.

And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language. And when they heard that he was addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, Jerusalem, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison, both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.

From them, I receive letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shown around me.

And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And this is the story as we first read it in Acts chapter nine, Paul recounting his testimony to all those here in Jerusalem as he is speaking to them.

Verse 12, Paul said in one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, came to me and standing by me, said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour, I received my sight and saw him.

And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you wait, rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I am prison and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.

And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Up to this word, they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, what are you about to do for this man as a Roman citizen?

So the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, yes. And the tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. But Paul said, I'm a citizen by birth. So those who were about to examine him withdrew him immediately.

And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him, which is not the way a Roman citizen is supposed to be treated. Roman citizens had rights afforded to them that were greater than any other people, barbarian or Jew or anyone else.

And so anybody who had arrested Paul and had thrown him in prison or bound him or done any of these things apart from the laws that were afforded to him as a Roman citizen were often fearful of what the outcome might be.

We saw this also happen in Philippi earlier in the book of Acts. So to kind of cut to the quick here, this is Paul's trip to Jerusalem. This is Jerusalem. This is on his way to Rome, his stop in Jerusalem.

He gets arrested in the temple and has an opportunity to share his testimony and all the gospel there before the people of Israel that are accusing him. Then he's arrested by these Romans about to be flogged.

He's not because he's a Roman citizen. He's going to appear before the council. Then he is going to be sent to Felix, the governor. He's going to be before Felix at Caesarea. Then Paul goes before Festus and it's there before Festus that he appeals to Caesar.

So as a Roman citizen, he's going to be sent to Caesar in Rome. So because he has done this, he gets a free trip to Rome. Now his way is provided for to get him there. Now of course it's going to be in chains.

It's going to be as a prisoner and he will be under house arrest once he arrives. But nonetheless, he gets this trip to Rome on behalf of the Roman government. And while he is there under house arrest, he is free to preach the gospel.

He can't be arrested because he's already arrested. And though we can't go out, people can come to him and he can preach the gospel there. And these Roman Christians have received this letter from Paul so they know who he is and when he arrives there, where he's at, that they can come to him.

And then they can be taught by an apostle, which is what Paul means to come there and do for those Roman Christians as well as preaching also to the rest who are in Rome. And so you have this apostolic ministry that is able to continue by the sovereign hand of God, what he intended in all of this to happen by Paul's arrest and journey from Jerusalem to Rome.

Awesome. So it's exactly as Paul had planned that he was going to do, though it was just not the way that he had planned to do it. But God in his sovereign plan had something better in store for Paul.

And by the way that this would happen, the gospel would go out more and more. He proclaimed it before the people in Jerusalem. He proclaimed the gospel before the Roman officials. And you could just imagine the number of people that were hearing the gospel because of Paul's imprisonment.

Rejoicing in Providence Instead of Complaining

What should we understand from this? Not just looking back on a historical event and seeing how God was in control of the entire situation so that the gospel of Christ would go out all the more. But this is all the more reason for us to rejoice in all circumstances because we just don't know how the circumstance that we are in, God is going to use to have his gospel proclaimed.

But if we are busy complaining about our circumstances, that we're not living in the lap of luxury on the way to do the thing that we think that we're doing for God and so he should be providing the best way for us possible.

If we're complaining about our situation and we're complaining about our circumstances, then we're missing the opportunity to preach the gospel while it is available to us. So this is one of the reasons why we should rejoice constantly, rejoice in all circumstances.

And I will tell you that as a parent, I am often convicted at the times that I complain in front of my kids and probably complain about something that they're doing because I'm actually missing an opportunity to share the gospel with them, to direct them to something Christ-like in the situation, in the circumstance that we are in.

And that's just, that's very much on the small scale, but that's an everyday thing that I deal with, how to teach the gospel all the more to my wife and to my children. And then this translates as a pastor.

If I'm complaining about things that are going on in my church, I'm missing an opportunity to be a witness in my church. If I'm complaining about things in the community, I'm missing an opportunity to be a witness in my community, so on and so forth.

So when we're complaining, we're not preaching the gospel. But if we are following the instruction of God as given in Philippians chapter four, in First Thessalonians chapter five, and many other places, to rejoice always, I will say it again, rejoice, to rejoice in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

If we understand this thankfulness, this appreciation we're supposed to have for every circumstance that comes our way, every opportunity that is given to us, we will see that as opportunities to present the gospel rather than to complain.

Remember the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. How much can you add to your day? Can you even add a single hour to your day by worrying, by anxiety, by complaining about your situation? Complaining about your situation, does that add anything positive to your situation?

But that we rejoice in the Lord in all circumstances, and we see every one of those opportunities as a chance to grow in Christ, to praise him all the more, and to preach his gospel to a lost and dying world.

So let us practice, even in the small circumstances, praising God so that when those big opportunities arrive, we won't miss the chance to preach the gospel to someone else. Amen. Lord, we thank you for this story, and we thank you for the history lesson of going back to Paul's story and his testimony, and hearing about, through the sovereign hand of God, how he was able to present the gospel, even in a place that he had previously been taken from because the Jews were hostile against him.

He did get to preach the gospel there, and then was able to go to the capital city of the world and preach it all the more. So let us look at the opportunities that have been given to us as a chance to rejoice in the Lord, be thankful for our circumstances, and share the gospel with those who are around us.

Doing this with a cheerful heart, by the power of Christ who dwells within us. And we pray and ask these things in his name. Amen.

Closing Announcements

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